Who Benefits from GM Crops?

-Full Report: 98-page 1.93mb PDF -Executive Summary: 32-page 580kb PDF

It's been over a decade since genetically modified organisms (GMOs) entered our environment in reasonable quantities. Up until the mid-1990s, although there was a great deal of debate and controversy across a broad spectrum of society - industry, scientists, farmers, politicians and consumers - the disputes largely centred around reports, studies and predictions. People could research and propose likely outcomes of GMO introduction, but it was not so easy to point the finger at the blood on the carpet, as it were.

A dozen years have passed, and GMOs have been introduced to several countries. They are particularly widespread (comparatively) in the U.S. So, where are we today? Were all those fears unwarranted? Have the gene manipulations of our food been vindicated? Is it just another method - or is it madness?

I was intending to make a comprehensive post on the topic at hand - the state of Genetically Engineered crops today - but, in this particular case, I'd like to conserve your reading-energy so you can funnel it into the target of this post - a comprehensive report on Genetically Modified crops entitled "Who Benefits from GM Crops?" Please see the 'Full Report' and 'Executive Summary' links above.

This is extremely important reading - I would encourage you to use the 'Forward this Story' link below to pass this along to your friends and colleagues. It cannot be emphasised enough that bio-technology is something that should be examined and dealt with democratically. Unfortunately, GMOs can never be democratic. The age old process of wind carrying seeds, along with the realities of horizontal gene transfer, means farmers and consumers are not getting a choice - even if the jar is labeled.

 

“Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food, our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” - Phil Angell, Director of Corporate Communications, Monsanto, New York Times, Oct. 25 ‘98

In a world in which millions of people do not have sufficient access to food, every dollar spent and invested in agriculture is crucial. The 2006 Food and Agriculture Organization report on global food security recognizes that there are more hungry people in developing countries today - 820 million - than there were in 1996. This is ten years down the road from the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, which promised to reduce the number of undernourished people by half by 2015. Far from decreasing, the number of hungry people in the world is increasing at a rate of four million per year. Agricultural investments are crucial in changing this situation, and we cannot afford to misuse scarce financial resources in implementing ‘false solutions’. - Who Benefits from GM Crops?

 

Further Reading - Celsias:

• The Future of Food
• Pay Monsanto, or Starve
• The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods
• Synthetic Biology, Opening Pandora's Box
• Soil, Our Financial Institution
• Which Came First, Pests or Pesticides
• Primarily Due to Agriculture
• A Growing Food Revolution

Further Reading - External Links:

• Dangers of Genetically Engineered Foods
• Genetic Engineering - Mindfully.org
• GM in India: the battle over Bt cotton
• The Emperor's Transgenic Clothes
• Suppressed report shows cancer link to GM potatoes
• Do GM Crops Mean Less Pesticide Use?
• GM Crops Increase Pesticide Use
• The GMO debate: 12 questions to ask
• GMOs not answer to poverty/hunger in Africa – New study
• Soil Association Articles on GMOs
• Can Organic Farming End World Hunger?